SHENZHEN, China, April 6, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — 500.com Limited (NYSE: WBAI) (“500.com” or the “Company”), a leading online sports lottery service provider in China, today made an announcement in furtherance to the announcement the Company made on April 3, 2015. The Company wants to restate that it was one of the two entities approved by the Ministry of Finance in 2012 to provide online lottery sales services on behalf of the China Sports Lottery Administration Center. In particular, such approval mandated that the China Sports Lottery Administration Center use its best effort to develop an online lottery sales management system as part of a pilot program for online lottery sales in China, and once such a management system is finished, the China Sports Lottery Administration Center should apply again for approval from the Ministry of Finance for official commencement of online lottery sales in China. The Company notes it has been working and will continue to work with the China Sports Lottery Administration Center to develop such a management system. To the best of the Company’s knowledge, the approval by the Ministry of Finance for the Company to provide online lottery sales services on behalf of the China Sports Lottery Administration Center is valid and has not been revoked or amended as of the date of this announcement.

The Company believes the public announcement jointly released by eight competent government authorities on April 3, 2015 is a further step by the competent government authorities to sanction unauthorized online lottery sales and to ensure the healthy development of the lottery market in China. In particular, the Company believes the close proximity of the release of such public announcement and the promulgation of the Notice on Issues Related to Self-Inspection and Self-Remedy of Unauthorized Online Lottery Sales on January 15, 2015 signals a potential significant change of regime in the online lottery market in China. In light of such potential change of regime, the Company decided to voluntarily and temporarily suspend all of its online lottery sales services. To the best of the Company’s knowledge, as of the date of this announcement, all online lottery sales service providers in China have temporarily suspended their operations.

The Company further notes that as of December 31, 2014, the Company had cash in the amount of RMB914.2 million, which the Company estimates would be sufficient to sustain the Company’s operations for approximately 10 years without taking into account any revenue, and given the Company’s estimated annual operational overhead of RMB80 million to RMB90 million.

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